Category: Cars

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No Comment!

Nowadays efficiency, better consumption, environmental driving are the main issues of automotive industry. And every new car is trying to minimize their consumption figures by lowering their resistance to air. Air and consumption! Let me define this very basic; if a car looks like a box without any softer edges, it will consume more fuel. Because, box designed car will have more resistance to air than softer one! Cars like Mercedes G Class, Land Rover Discovery are hopeless for efficiency. However this resistance has more impact on consumption after 120km/h.
As the speed increases, car’s resistance to air increases. Therefore, sexier looking car will less resistance to air than Mercedes G Class. Actually, anything different than G Class and Discovery has less resistance.
This new cw value, defines the resistance to air, is a very good marketing tool. And marketing departments are packing a very old stuff like a new stuff! The lowest cw, air resistance value production car is the Mercedes E Coupe. This new Mercedes with pre historic gearbox is offering cw value of 0,24. That’s the lowest one on market :) And you will be thinking; Mercedes engineer’s did this after very hard working etc etc etc. Actually, this number is not the lowest one. (Actually I really like the new E Coupe, I don’t care about it cw value, I would buy it!).
In 1934, Prague Auto Show hosted the Tatra 77. This was powered by 3,4lt V8 engine with an impressive air resistance of 0,212. cw value of 0,212 in 1934. And in 2010, the lowest one is 0,24.
No Comment!

Pictures are from
Mercedes Website
Land Rover Website
Wikipedia

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Cars

BMW 1: Audi 0

I am not a big fan of Audi. Mainly, their cars tend to understeer like front wheel driven cars. Actualy Audis are mostly front wheel driven but even the Quatrro tend to act like that! Therefore, I could not love Audi. But this does not change the fact that Audi is making very good cars but I cannot say they are very efficient like BMW. You can understand this by their emission levels. BMW 320d ED (163 PS) 109gr/km, Audi A4 2,0 TDie 120gr/km (136 PS).
BMW’s Efficient Dynamics technology is offering very high levels of fuel efficiency. Even the Mercedes does not offer similar technology on every model. Actually, they just started now but BMW introduced this earlier. And their new advertisement is proofing this!
A kid in primary school is talking about Efficient Dynamics and his classmates are looking with empty faces, actually when they will thirty, they will still have the empty face! Proofed :) End of the advertisement, he is showing BMW’s as the most efficient cars. And focus on Audi details ;)

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Cars

Answers to Google Searches (1)

As a part of public service, I decided to write the answer to your search queries in Google! How I know what you are thinking? Google Analytics shows the phrase people wrote in Google and clicked on my blog. And I wanted to write exact answers to their question ;)
1. Mercedes CLS Station: Are you crazy? I don’t think anyone on earth would be looking for a coupe station but there are some people! And they are searching Google for that :) That’s concept car, ugly, nobody will buy it if it will ever introduced. No second hand value. If you still be willing to buy one, send a picture when you buy one ;)
2. Land Rover Discovery 3 vs Discovery 4: There is no serious difference! Discovery 4 is not a new car, just a marketing trick. That’s the face-lifted Discovery 3. Of course with better interior quality and better looking and still as heavy as a house!
3. Florio Driving Shoes: You can find them in Kurt Geiger stores in UK. With ridicilous colours like purple and pink! And also if you subscribe to GQ Magazine, you will have £30 pound gift card which you could buy these shoes. Again, avoid the pink!
4. Ultimate Luxury Car: I guess, you know the lottery and looking for something luxury. If you won millions, go and buy a Rolls Royce Ghost or Bentley. If you won not millions, go for Mercedes S Class, BMW 7 Series. Try the diesels, because you will spent the rest of the money for stupid things. If you did not win and doing an academic research to find the ultimate luxury car then, it is Rolls Royce!
5. Audi A5 Sportback: Don’t buy! Go and buy a Mercedes CLS or BMW 6 Series or Passat CC but don’t buy the ugly A5 Sportback!
6. Aston Martin Cygnet Greece: I have no idea what this person was looking for! There are some Aston Martins in Greece but Cygnet is not sale yet. You cannot see that car in anywhere :(
7. Buying Maserati: Sorry you cannot buy it from internet!
8. French Car Quality: Buy a bottle of Coke, drink it and smash it! It will be the flash forward of a French car.
9. Jeremy Clarkson Driving Shoes: He does not have any sense of fashion. Try to avoid his style !!!
10. Pilates Driving Shoes: Please tell me what you were thinking :)
Pictures are from;
Google
Mercedes Website
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Cars

Smart Parking

Since it was introduced to US market in 2006, Smart’s size can be more effectively. When it is compared with huge American SUVs, when we can see that Smart is really small! This smallness is not a good sign for safety.
However, if you are living a crowded city and you could only speed up 60 (if you are lucky) then the Smart is the best option for you. Despite its high price tag in some countries, Smart is very ideal for city driving. Especially for one reason! Parking. With a Smart your parking ability is not limited to horizontal, you could also park vertical. As you can see from the pictures which is taken in Athens.
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Cars

Run Snob Run!!!

I am sure that you remember the movie Run Forest Run. I was thirteen or fourteen at those times and I still remember that nice movie :)
When I started to looking around people and what they are driving, I noticed something. People love to buy cars which can make them look snob. Actually, their cover story is; this car has a great design or this car is a status or they make up a story from that brand actually which does not exist and they are saying this car is reflection of this brand. Sorry!!! But car experts do not eat this :) And when someone asks critical questions about your car, don’t make up story, you will look very pathetic. Best option accept that you want to show off or change the topic. My recommendation is to change topic for you ;)
I have recently post blog about snobbish cars. The winner is Mini and Audi A3. Mainly in emerging markets, these two cars are line between rich and poor. Hopefully, there is a new one Audi A1. People who could not manage to buy an A3, now  you can buy A1. And it does not look boring like A2, many of snobs don’t know that. Search google ;) This very well designed and equipped with high technology of Audi, sorry Volkswagen is a piece of art. And that’s main reason you should not buy it. Firstly; like other Audis it is over-priced. Unless you are buying A4, may be A5, A6 or A8, just buy a VW it is cheaper and same quality. In addition; none of the Volkswagen or Audi cars have problem with pedals ;) Second reason not to buy A1 is you have Alfa Romeo MiTo and Fiat 500. Wait couple of months more and MiTo will have double clutch auto. Fiat 500 is the best looking car on planet and MiTo also. I cannot ignore the fact that; Audi A1 has the best interior with best quality on market. Do not expect to see this quality in Mini or MiTo or 500 or Polo. It is really Audi. I didn’t like the exterior :(
So, I could not find a reasonable reason to buy an A1 while there are better options are available. Audi I was loving A6 2.8 Quattro in 1998 but then things have changed. Still, Audi is much much much car company than some companies ;)
I really wish that, automotive industry never had the snob effect influence on cars. But nobody can do anything for this. As the snobs stick on one unlucky car, many people stop loving it :(
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Cars

Hon.-Prof. Dr. techn. h.c. Dipl.-lng. ETH Ferdinand K. Piëch (VW)

If you never heard of him, please don’t say “I know car business”. Unfortunately, you don’t. It is like, saying who is Bill Gates during an interview in Microsoft! No difference.
Mr.Piëch is grandson of Ferdinan Porsche, so he has the car DNAs in his blood. And his talent to turn VW from peoples’ boring car into automotive giant. Bentley and Bugatti missions were Piëch’s ideas. And if you love Veyron, you should thank him. Also he is very good at business game, his cousin Wolfgang Porsche started to buy VW bit by bit for quite long time and Piëch made the right movement at the right time and Porsche is a brand of VW. Now VW has these; VW, Audi, Porsche, Bugatti, Bentley, Skoda, Seat, MAN and Scania. VW has only have stakes in MAN and Scania. Also he has shaped the design of Porsche Panamera.
So he is the Bill Gates or Alexander the Great of automotive industry :) With this interesting pictures attached to his jacket. I found this on Top Gear Magazine’s December 2009 issue at page 112.
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Cars

Cry me a river, Toyota!

Finally Akio Toyoda cried! Toyota is suffering serious problems with gas pedal, brake pedal and steering wheeling. As you can see there are the main basic parts of a car :) And we don’t how, Toyota managed to break the down. Actually this is not something very very unusual, Mercedes had problems with electronic brake SBC in 2004. And many more cases happened similar to this.
The interesting point, as I mentioned earlier, Toyota does not have any other attributes rather than been durable. Nobody will dream a Toyota Corolla because of its design or nobody will fall in love with interior design or ergonomics. Just durable. When the durable car became endurable, Toyota is trying to pull the ejecting seat lever to get rid of these problems in a quick way.
As far as I read on newspaper, this is something very common in Japan to cover things up. But it won’t work in these parts of the world. Let’s remember when Mercedes had the SBC problem did someone come in front of the cameras and started to cry? Of course not. Come on, you did not break up with your wife. You should have predicted this problem before, when you produce more you make more problems.
Let’s see what will come next from Desperate Toyota Bosses! And to cheer up Toyota managers a song from Justing Timberlake is coming, Cry Me A River :)
Crying Toyota;
And Justing;
Picture is from;
Toyota Website
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Cars

New Porsche Cayenne

A few days ago, we have spotted the Cayenne in Porsche Car Configurator web site. In that picture, it was not that good looking. Interestingly, things have changed! The art of ugliness Cayenne turn into something which looks really nice. I mean both exterior and interior. Current Cayenne’s interior is a up rated VW Touareg and they both have boring interior. The perfection of dullness Cayenne turned into a real reflection of Porsche an SUV.
It does not have a low ratio gearbox for off road, like new Touareg it has a very short first gear which is designed for off road driving. It is planning to replace low ratio gearbox and I think, that’s a very good solution. Nobody is pushing that hard on off road but a low ratio first gear can help to go around when you get bored on road.
It has a proper diesel (240PS) and hybrid (380PS) models and like in Panamera it has start/stop function with automatic gearbox. And when the engine turns off, none of the electric gadgets disappear also the climate control will supply the preferred heat. If they need energy, focus on this, engine start will create the required energy. I think it will be used for climate control.
It looks much better than a BMW X5 and probably drives better than X5. But Porsche needs to have better diesel engines to cope with competitors who are nearly offering 300 horsepower diesel.
However, new Cayenne is a proper Cayenne ;) Now it has the Porsche design culture!
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Cars

How to run ESP?

ESP, DSC, VSC, MSP, CST; they all the do the same. Electronic stability control! These systems help to prevent unintended skids like under steer or overseer. This system has several G sensors and monitors the directions of vehicle, angle of steering wheel, traction levels and if car starts to go somewhere you are not suppose to go, system applied brakes to tyres to prevent any under or overseer.
This is the dictionary definition of this system. Why I am telling this? Nowadays you can find ESP on many cars and in following five years, it will be common like ABS! But most of us don’t know how to test the ESP ;) In 2001, when we have the Ford Mondeo with ESP; I had this problem. How this system starts working. And here is the solution.
If you are not living in a place where it snows all the time, you cannot the flashing light of ESP on your screen. ESP system starts to work immediately with erk test. This test became popular from Sweden, as they have many deers walking around; they created a way to test cars’ handling ability if they face with a deer. Sudden left turn then right turn then left turn. If you are driving a very tall car without the definition of handling, you can only achieve left turn then right turn and rollover. So, ESP works before you rollover. But never try to the limits of physics ;)
You can watch the video for details. And it was invented by Bosch and first used by Mercedes ;)
Bosch ESP Experience
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Cars

Katerina Stikoudi is washing a car :) – Κατερίνα Στικούδη είναι το πλύσιμο αυτοκινήτων

If you are not Cypriot or Greek, you won’t probably know who is Katerina Stikoudi. She won the title Miss Hellas in 2005 and she represented Greece in Miss World. She is currently hosting TV programme Mega Star in Mega TV in Greece. And also she has a video clip with Lava called Tora.
Accidently I found a video of her in Mega Star programme. This is something very usual but the interesting thing; she was washing and filling up cars. But the problem is, she is washing a pre-historic, ancient Jaguar XJ. Production team picked up the worst car to wash! And also she was cleaning the wind screen of a Peugeot 206 CC and filling up with petrol. Then a guy comes with a Citroën C2 with plastic wheel covers!
Elaa reee! You found the worst cars to appear on TV! Jaguar XJ is classic but too classic! My opinion; she should be washing up a Maserati GranTurismo, for cleaning the wind-screen Jaguar XF and instead of C2 they should have used a Alfa Romeo MiTo. These cars will complete the sexiness ;)
In Greek;
Αν δεν είναι Κύπριοι της Ελληνικής, δεν θα έχετε ίσως γνωρίζουν ποιος είναι Κατερίνα stikoudi. Κέρδισε τον τίτλο Μις Ελλάς το 2005 και εκπροσώπησε την Ελλάδα στη Μις Κόσμος. Είναι φιλοξενεί σήμερα τηλεοπτικών προγραμμάτων Mega Star στο Mega τηλεόραση στην Ελλάδα. Και επίσης έχει ένα βίντεο κλιπ με Lava ονομάζεται Tora.

Κατά λάθος βρήκα ένα βίντεο από της στο πρόγραμμα Mega Star. Αυτό είναι κάτι πολύ συνηθισμένο, αλλά το ενδιαφέρον πράγμα? Ήταν πλύσιμο και γεμίζει αυτοκίνητα. Αλλά το πρόβλημα είναι, αυτή είναι το πλύσιμο των προ-ιστορικό, αρχαία Jaguar XJ. Παραγωγή αυξήθηκε το χειρότερο αυτοκίνητο να πλένεται! Και επίσης, ήταν η οθόνη καθαρισμού αέρα ενός Peugeot 206 CC και γεμίζουν με βενζίνη. Στη συνέχεια, έρχεται ένας τύπος με ένα C2 Citroën με πλαστικό τιμόνι καλύπτει!

 
ELAA reee! Βρήκατε το χειρότερο αυτοκίνητα για να εμφανιστεί στην τηλεόραση! Jaguar XJ είναι κλασικό αλλά πολύ κλασικό! Η γνώμη μου? Αυτή θα πρέπει να είναι το πλύσιμο μια Maserati GranTurismo, για τον καθαρισμό του ανεμοθώρακα Jaguar XF και αντί του C2 θα πρέπει να έχουν χρησιμοποιήσει Alfa Romeo Mito. Αυτά τα αυτοκίνητα θα ολοκληρώσει την sexiness ;)